迦太基必須毀滅(拉丁語:Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam 或 Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam[註 1]。中文直譯:還有,我認爲迦太基必須被毀滅。)是一句拉丁語名言,源于在罗马和迦太基之间的第三次布匿战争(公元前149-146年)之前罗马政治家老加图在罗马元老院进行的辩论发言。据说,老加图在所有推动战争的演讲中都以这个短语作为结束语。
更完整的形式是Ceterum Ceneo delendam esse Carthaginem和Ceterum autem Ceneo delendam esse Carthaginem使用所谓的宾格和不定式结构作为间接陈述。在每一种形式中,动词censeo(“I opine”)建立了间接陈述delendam esse Carthaginem(“即迦太基将被摧毁”)。[5]间接陈述的主体迦太基语处于宾格;动词esse是现在不定式。Delendam是一个谓语形容词,与主语名词Carthaginem有关,因此采用相同的数字(单数);性别(女性);格(宾格)为迦太基语。[6]
^ To be clear, the semantic import of "Carthage is to be destroyed" is not "Carthage is scheduled for future destruction," but rather that "Carthage must be destroyed." The former is a flaccid recital of a future eventuality; the latter is a normative statement of what needs to happen, of moral desert. That is the deontic modality. See, e.g., Risselada, Rodie. Imperatives and Other Directive Expressions in Latin: A Study in the Pragmatics of a Dead Language. Brill Academic Publishers, 1993. p. 179. Print. (noting that the periphrastic gerundival construction "has a general deontic value.")
^John Jacobs, "From Sallust to Silius Italicus, Metvs Hostilis and the Fall of Rome in the Punica", in Miller & Woodman (eds.), Latin Historiography, p. 123.